Have you ever watched The Lion King or Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast?
Have you ever heard the song Love Story by Taylor Swift?
All of these things have one thing in common.
They were inspired by the writings of a guy who lived more than 400 years ago.
Maybe you've heard of his name.
His name is William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare wrote more than 30 plays in over 150 poems in about 20 years.
The story's words, characters, and names from these plays and poems have inspired books, songs, movies, and wedding proposals.
Because of that, he's pretty famous and very mysterious.
There's a good chance you've heard his name before, or maybe even his funny nickname, The Bard.
But do you know why so many people are inspired by his work?
Let's dig into William Shakespeare's life and work from so long ago to see if we can discover why this writer is still so popular, even though he hasn't written anything in over 400 years!
Shakespeare was born in 1564 in a town called Stratford -upon -Avon in England.
There's no official birth record, so we actually don't know what day Shakespeare was born.
A little mysterious, right?
A lot of people have tried to guess his exact birthday and what his childhood was like.
But all we really know is that he had a big family growing up, and when he was only 18 years old, in 1582, he got married and started a young family of his own.
A few years later, Shakespeare's story starts to get interesting and more mysterious.
He disappeared, well, at least according to history records.
From 1585 until 1592, for seven years there are no records of him, where he lived or what he did.
Then in 1592, he turned up in London out of nowhere.
London is the biggest city in England, and it's not far away from Stratford -upon -Avon where he was born.
Of course, it took a lot longer to travel back in 16th century.
It probably took about three days for Shakespeare to get from his hometown to London.
That still doesn't explain where he was or what he was doing for the seven years that we have no record of his life.
Some people think he was just working in the big city of London.
Maybe he was learning to be an actor, because by 1592, he had established an acting job on stage.
Luckily for Shakespeare, right about the same time, he moved to London, the theatre industry took off.
The first ever theatre in London was opened in 1576.
They named it The Theatre.
Not exactly the most clever name, but it was a good start for actors and writers in London, like Shakespeare.
Not everybody loved the way Shakespeare acted, though.
Many people thought his acting was a little too dramatic.
Some thought he was even a little odd.
Even though he had some critics, Shakespeare was memorable, and he was starting to get famous.
He even began to write some plays of his own.
Just as Shakespeare had made a name for himself, a big plague started to break out across London.
In the 1590s, all of the theatres and playhouses had to shut down quickly, because the plague was spreading and making people sick.
With theatres closed, Shakespeare had plenty of time.
This is when he started writing even more.
He wrote and wrote and wrote, and then he wrote some more.
Instead of plays, he started writing poetry and sonnets.
Sonnets are poems, but they have strict rules on the number of lines and syllables in them.
They're kind of like a song, because of the specific rhythm each of them has.
This means they're harder to write.
After a few years, theatres were able to reopen again.
To continue his love of acting, Shakespeare joined an acting group.
It was called Lord Chamberlain's Men.
They were pretty well known in London.
Sometimes they would even act out of play for the King and Queen of England.
It was called Lord Chamberlain's Men, because in Shakespeare's time, women weren't allowed to do any acting.
This meant that all characters had to be played by boys and men.
Imagine a boy trying to play all of the parts in your favorite movie.
It's a good thing that today, anyone can be an actor.
With this acting group, Shakespeare helped build a brand new theatre called The Globe.
Not only did it have a much better name than the theatre, but it actually still exists in London today.
It has had to be remodeled and reconstructed, but you can actually go there today and watch a play, just like the ones in Shakespeare's time.
Maybe The Globe is one of the reasons people still talk about Shakespeare so much.
The Globe is unique.
It's round, and it doesn't have a roof over the middle of it.
It looks a little bit like a donut.
400 years ago, it was special because it allowed people from all different types of backgrounds to gather and watch plays.
People with less money could afford standing tickets in the middle of The Globe.
They stood right in front of the stage.
This meant that they were exposed to any rain, wind, or cold that came in through the open roof.
People with more money sat on the outside ring of the theatre.
They had comfy seats and higher views, but they weren't as close to the action.
The Globe wasn't all that big.
In some ways, the audience was part of the play.
Sometimes the audience would shout at the actors on stage.
They would cheer and laugh, but also boo and even throw food at the actors that they didn't like.
They were also musicians who would play noises to try to make the play more exciting.
There was even a real cannon that would fire when it fit into the play.
Between all of this acting and building of theatres, Shakespeare spent whatever free time he had left writing.
We know for sure that he wrote 38 plays and more than 200 other poems.
Some people think he wrote even more, but the evidence isn't clear on that.
For one, there are no original copies of his plays around today.
There aren't even any surviving letters from Shakespeare.
Many people make guesses about him because of that.
Some are shocked at how one could possibly come up with so many good stories.
The only thing we know for sure is that his plays were a hit.
He wrote three types of plays.
Tragedies, Comedies, and Histories.
They're almost exactly what they sound like.
Tragedies had sad endings, where the main characters usually did not end up winning or succeeding.
Comedies had happy endings.
They were funny and light -hearted.
Histories told the stories of real events, usually about kings and queens who did something heroic.
One of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies is called Romeo and Juliet.
It's probably the most famous love story in the world.
It's inspired more than 34 movies.
But as you can imagine, since it's a tragedy, it doesn't have a happy ending.
It does have a very famous line in it.
Have you ever heard someone say, oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
It was something Juliet was saying to the man she loved but wasn't allowed to see.
It's not just dramatic lines that have made Shakespeare so influential.
Do you know the word uncomfortable?
Well that's a word that Shakespeare invented in Romeo and Juliet too.
He liked to add the prefix un to a lot of words to make new words that meant exactly what he wanted them to.
The prefix un means not.
This may be unsurprising or even uninteresting to you.
But if it is unknown to you that Shakespeare was unnaturally talented at making up words, then perhaps this short explanation was unmistakably useful.
Shakespeare invented a total of 1700 words, and many of them we still use today.
We can thank Shakespeare for words such as bandit, bedazzled, eyeball, fashionable, and gossip.
Extra points if you can use all five words in one sentence.
Shakespeare was also pretty good at coming up with some outrageous insults.
They were sometimes both harsh and passionate, so anyone using them today should be careful.
The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of Shakespeare's comedies.
In this play one of his characters calls another, the rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril.
To translate, Shakespeare was telling one of his characters that they smelled so bad that his nose was hurting.
It was a pretty good way to insult someone.
Shakespeare's favorite insult though was definitely calling someone a toad.
He used that one a lot.
In short, Shakespeare wrote about everything.
He wrote about witches and kings, ghosts, and rival families.
His characters would argue, joke, and cry, and they might live in forests, on islands and cities, and even at luxurious parties.
Audiences never knew if his charming characters were going to end up happily married or poisoned by the end of the scene.
Each of his plays were different from the last, but each one was just as unpredictable and interesting.
After about 20 years of writing, acting, and working in the theater industry, Shakespeare retired in 1610, and he returned to his quiet hometown.
It was there that he died six years later from a sickness.
As if his life weren't full of enough mysteries, his death actually holds one more.
Shakespeare's gravestone has a curse written on it warning people to stay away from his grave.
Historians believe he actually wrote this himself while he was working in London.
With his death, you might think his story is over, but it isn't.
His work lives on. The comedies, tragedies, histories, and sonnets that he wrote are used by people in all different kinds of professions today.
Regular people like you and I might quote him when we say, we're in a pickle.
Famous painters like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali have made sketches of scenes from his plays.
Famous musicians like The Beatles and Taylor Swift have quoted or been inspired by his characters.
And many, many films like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King take inspiration from Shakespeare's characters, speeches, and stories.
Shakespeare has inspired just about every type of art you can think of.
So why is this one writer so incredibly influential?
Is it because people are intrigued by the mystery of his birth date and his disappearance?
Is it because people don't believe one man could possibly have imagined so many good stories on his own?
Or maybe it's simply because he was a good author whose plays were dramatic, exciting, and entertaining.
It could also be because he liked to keep using fun words like swagger and bedazzled.
One thing we know for sure is that Shakespeare's words and stories are known and used by people all over the world.
If you ever find yourself in London, check out one of his many plays still being performed at the Globe.
Whether you stand near the stage or sit near the back, you won't be disappointed.
But if you are, no tomato throwing please.
That's just unacceptable.
